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Brighton U18s v Spurs - Kieran's preview

Posted on 30 October 2015
- 13:53

Kieran McKenna has challenged our young players returning from international duty to get quickly back into the groove at club level when we visit Brighton & Hove Albion in the Barclays Under-18 Premier League on Saturday.

Goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman and attackers Marcus Edwards and Kazaiah Sterling have all reported back to Hotspur Way after representing England at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Brazil in recent weeks.

With the trio in contention for a place in the squad for this weekend’s game on the south coast, Under-18s Coach Kieran says they can pick up valuable pointers for their future careers by making a quick transition back to domestic duties.

“We’ve got a few boys returning from the Under-17 World Cup this week so we’ve got a large squad available,” he said.

“It was a valuable experience for them to play in a World Cup environment out in South America, we’ll review with them what they learned from it technically and tactically and we’ll monitor them physically over the next couple of weeks as well, but another important part of their learning process is quickly adapting from international to club football.

“It’s what the senior players have to do when they go away on international trips, they return on the Wednesday or Thursday and are straight back into Premier League action, so it’s certainly a good experience for them.”

We last met Brighton on the opening day of the season, when we claimed a comprehensive 5-1 home win. However, Kieran says registering another victory will be no easy task this time around.

“Brighton tend to have a playing philosophy where they try to build up possession from the back so you usually get a good technical game there,” he added. “It will be a good test for us and hopefully we’ll come out with some strong individual performances.

“Everyone’s moved on from the disappointment of the late goal and defeat to Leicester last weekend, we’ve had a good training week and now we’re looking to go and impress at Brighton.”

Kick-off at the American Express Elite Performance Centre is at 11.30am on Saturday. Follow us on Twitter @SpursOfficial for live updates.